1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to plastic containers having enhanced thermal properties that allows them to be used in applications where the contents is a fluid, or paste, or solid, or combination of such, and comprises water or water based solutes that is heated up to the boiling point of a fluid, or oil, or oil based recipes that is heated up to 250° F. The present invention also relates to containers having enhanced thermal properties that allows them to be used at up to 270° F. in applications where a filled container is exposed to sterilization, pasteurization or retort processes. The present invention also relates to a process of manufacturing such plastic containers that result in enhanced thermal properties.
2. Background Art
Blow molding processes for forming PET containers are well known in the art. PET plastic containers have replaced or provided an alternative to glass containers for many applications. However, few food products that must be processed using pasteurization or retort are available in plastic containers. Pasteurization and retort methods are frequently used for sterilizing solid or semi-solid food products, e.g., pickles and sauerkraut. The products may be packed into the container along with a liquid at a temperature less than 82° C. (180° F.) and then sealed and capped, or the product may be placed in the container that is then filled with liquid, which may have been previously heated, and the entire contents of the sealed and capped container are subsequently heated to a higher temperature. As used herein, “high-temperature” pasteurization and retort are sterilization processes in which the product is exposed to temperatures greater than about 80° C.
Pasteurization and retort differ from hot-fill processing by including heating the filled container to a specified temperature, typically greater than 93° C. (200° F.), until the contents of the filled container reach a specified temperature, for example 80° C. (175° F.), for a predetermined length of time. That is, the external temperature of the hot-filled container may be greater than 93° C. so that the internal temperature of a solid or semi-solid product reaches approximately 80° C. Retort processes also involve applying overpressure to the container. The rigors of such processing present significant challenges for the use of plastic containers, including containers designed for use in hot-fill processing. For example, during a retort process, when a plastic container is subjected to relatively high temperatures and pressures, the plastic container's shape will distort. Upon cooling, the plastic container generally retains this distorted shape or at least fails to return to its pre-retort shape.
Prior art efforts to increase the thermal performance of PET containers have focused on increasing the crystallinity levels of PET. PET is a crystallizable polymer meaning that its crystallinity can be manipulated by the process of forming articles from the PET. These efforts have been successful to the extent of forming PET containers capable of withstanding temperatures up to 97° C. (207° F.) but not much beyond.
A two-phase model of PET morphology states that PET molecules can exist in two phases: an amorphous phase and a crystalline phase. The amorphous phase has been described on a molecular level as resembling a sporadic or chaotic formation that is lack of order. In a solid state the molecule motion belongs to amorphous phase is restricted to very short range vibrations and rotations that is also characterized by a level of energy required to achieve morphing transformation after the distinct energy is delivered. In the molten state there is considerable segmental motion arising from rotation about chemical bonds. In the crystalline phase, the polymer chains arrange themselves in the orderly alignment with greater capacity, energy wise. Crystalline portions of the PET molecules can extend straight in one direction and then fold back and forth numerous times to form a folded structure. Numerous such folded structures can stack to form more complex structures known as lamellae. Further crystallized, the lamellae can form globules with even greater energy capacity, but at the cost of being completely opaque.
A three-phase model of PET has also been proposed to account for deficiencies observed in the two-phase model. The three phase model includes a (1) crystalline phase, (2) a rigid amorphous phase, and (3) a mobile amorphous phase. One article describing the three-phase model is “Vitrification and Devitrification of the Rigid Amorphous Fraction in poly(ethylene terephthalate)” by Maria Cristina Righetti and Maria Laura Di Lorenzo published at e-polymers.org in 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
Three commonly known methods for increasing the crystalline fraction of PET include quiescent crystallization, strain-induced crystallization, and a combination thereof. Quiescent crystallization requires exposing an amorphous PET article to heat above the glass transition temperature of PET (70° C. or 158° F.) at the very slow heating rate to impart mobility into the polymer chains, which allows them to reorganize into a crystalline morphology. This is also known as “cold crystallization.” Strain-induced crystallization requires stretching of the PET under proper heat and extension ratios to orient the PET molecules into an organized matrix. An example of strain-induced crystallization is when a preform (a test tube shaped article) is blown into a mold of greater volume to cause stretching of the preform in a single direction or in multiple directions. Articles with strain-induced crystallinity can be exposed to heat in a process known as heat setting or thermal annealing to cause a relaxation in the stressed-induced crystallinity to increase the thermal properties of the final article. The prior art discloses that the orientation of the polymer chains creates a condition where crystal formation is kinetically favorable upon application of thermal energy. This statement is only applicable to a case where a heated article, for example, loses its transparency as a result of development of heat-induced lamellae and globules.
Prior art efforts to increase the thermal performance of PET containers have focused on increasing the crystallinity levels of PET. PET is a crystallizable polymer meaning that its crystallinity can be manipulated by the process of forming articles from the PET. These efforts have been successful to the extent of forming PET containers capable of withstanding temperatures up to 97° C. (207° F.) but not much beyond. The following summarizes such efforts.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,476,170; 4,512,948; 4,522,779; 4,535,025; 4,603,066; 4,713,270; 4,839,127 and 4,891,178 to Jabarin (“the Jabarin patents”) disclose single mold systems for forming PET containers. The Jabarin patents disclose using mold temperatures of up to 250° C. (482° F.) to form containers having crystallinity of up to 60%. Removing the finished containers from such molds without shrinkage of the containers requires either lowering the temperature of the mold to a point where the containers are self-sustaining and can be removed or applying internal pressure to the container when removing the container until the container cools to a temperature where the container is self-sustaining. Neither of these techniques were commercially feasible, however, because the first technique would require extremely long cycle times and the second would be difficult to control in commercial applications.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,562,960 and 5,501,590 disclose two-mold systems for forming PET containers known as a dual-blow system. Those patents require forming an intermediate article in a first mold having a volume greater than the finished container, conveying the intermediate article through a shrink oven to crystallize the intermediate article and then placing the intermediate article into a second mold where it is blown into the finished article. Containers formed from this method have reported crystallinity from 40-50%.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,485,669; 6,485,670; 6,514,451; 6,749,415 and 6,767,197 (“the Boyd patents”) and the Boyd Dissertation disclose that the minimum amount of cooling during the blow molding process and the higher the temperature at de-molding leads to the higher thermal properties of the finished article. The Boyd patents disclose blowing heated air, hot air annealing, or a combination of heated air and fluid onto the inner surface of an article in a blow mold to increase the thermal properties of the finished article.
Commercial techniques for forming PET utilize both threaded and unthreaded preforms. Preforms are essentially amorphous having less than about 5% crystallinity. Upon blow molding a threaded preform into an expanded article the threads will have substantially the same dimension in the finished article as the preform, and, therefore, will have little if any strain induced crystallization. Such a finish will be susceptible to softening and deformation under hot fill conditions. Thus, some amount of crystallization must be imparted to the finish section to enhance thermal performance without shrinking the finish and without imparting whitening to the finish. U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,656 discloses a method for crystallizing the finish section in such a way that one surface is crystallized throughout its length and the other surface includes an area that is essentially uncrystallized with crystallization in a mid-portion of the finish being graded between the surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,022 discloses an apparatus for forming a PET container from a threaded preform. This patent states that due to the low orientation of the finish and the heel of the container during blow molding that it is undesirable to heat set these areas as it would create whitening in these areas by creating spherulitic crystallinity. Thus, this patent discloses a blow station that selectively heats the strain-oriented sections of the container and cooling the portions of the container having little or no strain orientation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,841,117 discloses a method for blow molding a container from a threadless preform. The method includes the step of blow molding a preheated, threadless preform in a heated mold having threads of the desired size to form an intermediate container having threads. The intermediate container has a moil section above the threaded finish which is cut from the intermediate container to form the final container. The finish will have a desired crystallinity of 25% to provide sufficient thermal properties for hot fill applications. More particularly, the preform is preheated to a temperature of 108° C. and then disposed within a mold cavity maintained at temperatures from 138 to about 143° C. The portion of the mold cavity forming the bottom of the container is maintained at 49 to about 54° C. After the mold is closed the preform is blown with air pressure of 40 bar for 1.5 to 3 seconds. A stretch cooling rod blows recirculating cooling gas at a temperature from about 20 to about 40° C. inside the container in the region of the blown threads. The container is removed from the mold at below about 80° C.
Despite these developments, the packaging industry still has to turn to metal or glass containers for applications that require temperatures up to 270° F. in applications where a filled container is exposed to sterilization, pasteurization or retort processes. Accordingly, there remains a need to provide PET plastic containers that can withstand such extreme conditions associated with pasteurization and retort processing in order to take advantage of the cost savings that can be realized through manufacture and recycling.